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THOS. J. FORD. 
Sergeant Company H. Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry. 



MAY 13 1898 

M'.Yip. 1898 

WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 



Incidents and Anecdotes During the War of the 
Rebellion, as Remembered by One 

OF THE NoN-CoMMISSIONED 

Officers. 



■/ 
By THOMAS J. FORD, 

Sergeant Company H, Twenty-Fourth Wisconsin 
Infantry. 



1898. 

Prhss of the Evening Wisconsin Co. 

Milwaukee. 



^^^^-j . v^ 



85B6 



Copyright, 1898, 

BY 

Thos. J. Ford. 









INTRODUCTORY. 

t^* t^* t^* 

My Dear Reader : Among the many publications 
which the late war has drawn forth, I present you with 
something which you have' never read, nor which has ever 
been in print, until the issue of this little book. The 
sketches contained herein have been carefully revised and 
made as brief as possible, with the object of bringing be- 
fore you the privations and hardships of the rank and file. 
A few of the amusing incidents of life in the army are 
also chronicled, as they occurred in Camp, on the March, 
or on the Battlefield. Papers on compulsory education, 
the pulpit and the press, farm life, and one on the merits 
of America's two grandest men (George Washington and 
Abraham Lincoln) v/ill also be found herein. 

Thomas J. Ford. 
Milwaukee, May, 1898. 



INQDENTS AND ANECDOTES- 

t^* %S^ %0^ 

Sketches of Army Life from the Viewpoint of a Non-Com- 
missioned Officer During the Rebellion. 

t^* t^^ ti^ 

An Address Delivered at E. B. Wolcott Post. G. A. R., Hall, Milwaukee, 
Wis., November 19, 1897, by Thomas J. Ford. 

%f^ X^ C^ 

Commander and Comrades: The history of 
the late war is generally known by the whole civil- 
ized world; but the history of each private individ- 
ual in that conflict is known much less by others 
than by myself. 

In presenting to you a few sketches of the many 
incidents and privations of my army life, you must 
not expect me, in my humble rank as private, cor- 
poral and sergeant, to give you as broad a view of 
the army in which I served as other men of higher 
rank and station can give you. My duty was with 
my company and its immediate surroundings, as 
others in the same rank and file. 



6 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

The Twentj-fourtli Wisconsin Eegiment was 
organized in August, 1862, and on the 8th of Octo- 
ber following were engaged in the Battle of Perrv- 
ville, Kentucky. Just before starting for the bat- 
tlefield that morning (I had not been feeling very 
well for a week past) I went to Dr. Ilasse, our regi- 
mental surgeon, and told him about it. 

''Well/' he said, "Ford, I don't know what to do 
for you. All the medicine is packed away but that 
five-gallon can of castor oil there. Just set it on 
the top of that stump and take a swallow of it." 

I did so. "And now," he said, "I will give you 
an order to have your luggage carried in the 
wagon." I packed up everything that I could get 
along without, which left nothing on my person but 
my red shirt, pants, shoes and cap. We got into 
battle sooner than was expected. As we were in 
the resen^e line of battle waiting for orders the 
rebel bullets were dropping thick and fast around 
us, for they were preparing to charge on one of our 
batteries. A brigade orderly rode up to Col. Larra- 
bee, of our regiment, the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin, 
and said, "Colonel, the General wants you to 
march your regiment to the left of that battery and 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 7 

hold it at all hazards ; the rebels are about to charge 
on it." 

The Colonel was somewhat hard of hearing. He 
placed his hand to his ear and said, ^'What's tliar, 
sir?" 

The order was repeated. The Colonel an- 
swered, "I will, by God, sir;" and called the regi- 
ment to attention. We marched to the left of that 
battery in double-quick time. The size and ap- 
pearance of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin swinging 
into line with ten hundred and twenty-four men 
and firing a few volleys of musketry at them 
checked the advancing foe and the battery w^as 
saved. I was in the front rank in my company 
with no coat on and the only red shirt visible in the 
regiment. The order was given to fall back about 
twenty paces to the rear. We were too far out 
near the crest of the hill looking down on the corn- 
field where the rebels were, but I did not fall back. 
I was so interested loading and firing at the rebels 
down in that cornfield that I did not hear the com- 
mand to cease firing or to fall back. The regiment 
was ready to fire in its new position, but the com- 
mand was not c'iven until the red-shirtcd man fell 



8 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

back into line. The Colonel was calling for me. 
He sent Adjutant Mc Arthur out in front after me, 
at the same time calling aloud, "You man with the 
red shirt, fall back.'' 

I knew that meant me, so I looked around and 
saw Adjutant ^AIc Arthur galloping to the front and 
the regiment was back in the rear. Too quick did 
I about face and double-quick to my place in the 
front rank of my company. That night I lay on 
the ground with nothing between me and the blue 
sky but my shirt, pants, shoes and cap. 

Another incident. Just before the Battle of 
Stone River I received a box of fine cut chewing 
and smoking tobacco from an uncle of mine in Mil- 
waukee. We got orders that night to get ready for 
the march in the morning. I did not know what 
to do with my big box of tobacco, containing eleven 
dollars' worth, done up in Mihvaukee. A rare thing 
to get — ^lilwaukee tobacco. Some of the company 
boys helped me to do it up in packages from fifty 
cents' worth to a dollar and a half size packages, and 
we went around and sold all the tobacco in an 
hour s time to ofiicers and privates alike, but got 
very little money, the regiment not being paid yet, 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 9 

SO we liad to trust until pay day. We got into the 
fight, however, at daybreak, one gTay, frosty morn- 
ing, after lying on our arms all night, and our fing- 
ers were all benumbed with the cold and frost. As 
for myself, I can say that I had to place my finger 
on the trigger of the gun with my left hand before 
I could bring it up to an aim. The rebels came 
down on us, colors flying and in solid column, shout- 
ing and hollering as if certain and sure of victory. 
We fell back before them. They croAvded us into 
a cedar woods, where there was nothing but cedar 
trees and rocks-, and it seemed as if all the birds and 
rabbits in that large field were looking for protec- 
tion around our feet. So thick and fast did the 
rebels send their shot and shell after us that jo\x 
might think it impossible for a bird to escape them. 
The rebels had us surrounded for a while. You 
could see the rebel ofiicers and orderlies galloping 
on their horses in the near distance, urging their 
men on to make a complete capture, but we got out 
of that battle all right, as history fully explains. 
When w^e were in the thickest of this fight an inci- 
dent took place about that tobacco I sold on time. 
A comrade of niine, James Siangan, fonnerly a 



10 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

school teacher in the Town of Franklin (and I was 
a pupil at his school mvself), came near me and 
said, "Thomas, this is terrible. It seems impossible 
for any of ns to escape being killed by those shells 
and bnllets.if thev continue this wav much lono:er.'^ 
(At the same time I noticed one of the boys that I 
sold some tobacco to, on time, drop.) 

"Yes," said I. "But what will I do now for the 
price of my tobacco ? Most of those are killed that 
I sold it to, and I will never be paid." 

"To the devil with you and your tobacco," said 
lie, "if that is what you are thiidving of now, in 
place of your soul." 

We went into that battlefield early in the after- 
noon, without anything to eat; lay on our arms all 
night in line of- battle in the immediate front of the 
enemy and fought all the next day without any- 
thing to eat or drink. Our supply train was cut 
off. General Rosecrans had a large pile of forage 
corn near his headquarters. The boys commenced 
stealing it for food. There was a strong guard 
placed around it, and an order issued to give eacli 
man one ear of corn as far as it went until supplies 
w^ould arrive. In dealing out the corn the plan 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 11 

was to put one ear of corn into each empty hand as 
it reached out. Some got two ears of corn by plac- 
ing the first behind their bax'k and thrusting fortii 
the other empty hand. The pile of corn did not 
supply one-hundredth part of the vast numbers clus- 
tered around it. AVe ate the ear of corn, and that 
was all we had to eat at that time. 

Closing this incident of the Battle of Stone 
Kiver, I might as well remark right here that my 
father and his three sons were in the AVar of the Re- 
bellion from 1861-1865, and the first he knew of 
two of his sons being in the war and in the Twenty- 
fourth Wisconsin was after the Battle of Stone 
Eiver. He took part in the same battle with Cap- 
tain Bridges' battery. Father came to sec Col. 
Lan'abee of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin w^itli a 
view of getting his two sons, Daniel and Thomas, 
transferred to Bridges' battery, so that we could be 
together with him. He told the Colonel about it, 
and the Colonel said he would not allow it to be 
done; they w^ere two goods boys and he was going 
to keep them. 

"But they are my boys," said the old man, "and 
I want them with me." 



12 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

''They are not your boys, by God, sir/' said the 
Colonel; "they are my boys, and I am going to keep 
them; you cannot have them." 

The other son was in the Twenty-fourth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment, and at the Battle of Fredericks- 
burg was shot through the heart while planting 
the Stars and Stripes on the rebels' breastworks. 
The color-bearer being shot down, he picked up the 
flag and both he and the flag lay on the rebels' 
breastworks, our side being repulsed. 

There was a general order one time that our 
boys should not steal anything in a certain part of 
the country where we were located during Col. Lar- 
rabee's command over the regiment. The General 
ordered the Colonel that he should punish those 
two men that were caught as an example for the 
rest. I heard the Colonel pronounce the sentence 
in these words, as I was standing guard near 
his tent, "i^ow, boys, I have to punish you. 
I am so ordered by the General. I want you both 
to understand that I am not punishing you for steal- 
ing, but for getting caught at it, by God." This 
seemed to be a common bvAVord of the Colonel. 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 13 

General Rousseau had command of our division 
for a sliort time near a place in Tennessee that wt? 
addressed our letters from as Camp Starvation, near 
Cowan's Station. The citizens were nearly all 
loyal to tlie Union cause. It was a rough, stony 
and hilly country. They seemed to have only a 
few sheep for their meat. The General ordered 
that the men should not kill any of those sheep. 
Shortly after we broke ranks of course some went 
off foraging, as usual. They killed a sheep and 
dressed it and had it on their shoulders coming back 
to camp when they met the General and his staff 
out reconnoitering. 

"Halt those men there," said the General to one 
of his orderlies, "and place them under arrest. Take 
that mutton up to my headquarters and have it 
cooked for supper." lie released the men on the 
promise that they Avould not do it again. Xext day 
about the same time the same four boys went out 
again. They knew where there was a large, fat 
XoAvfoundland dog. They killed him, cut off his 
head and legs, skinned and dressed him up nicely in 
the shape of a mutton. They met the General 
nearly in the same place as the day before. 



14 WITH THE KAXK: AND FILE. 

"What, those same men disobeying my orders 
again? Place those men nnder arrest and report 
tlieir commanding officer. Orderly, take that mut- 
ton to headquarters and tell the cook to hurry up 
with it for supper." They ate that mutton for sup- 
per, and all declared it sweeter and better mutton 
than the one eaten the night befare. 

Everyone in camp knew wdiat had happened. 
We had those little dog tents at that time. The 
General and staff came galloping down our com- 
pany streets the next morning, wdien every soldier, 
as if with one accord, thrust his head out of the 
little tents and commenced barking like so many 
dogs. The horses commenced prancing; the Gen- 
eral's hat fell off; he stuck the spurs into his horee's 
side, and galloped off' to Col. Larrabee's tent, just 
in front of him. 

'T say, Colonel, what does this mean, your men 
barking at me like so many dogs?" 

''Well, I don't know, General, "said the Colonel, 
"unless you have some dog in you." 

The General scratched his head and said, "Out- 
generaled by my own men. That is the last 
damned 'order' I will ever issue in this camp." 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 15 

Col. Larrabee was a good man, but he seemed 
to get tired of the war after a certain time when he 
did not receive a brigadier-generalship, which he 
was entitled to by seniority. We were taking a 
rest one day under the shade of some trees waiting 
for orders, lying down full length, taking the best 
advantage of the precious moments given us, when 
the Colonel raised himself up to a sitting position 
and said, "Boys, I brought the Twenty-fourth Wis- 
consin Kegiment into the field ten hundred and 
twenty-four men strong. Xow I have but three 
hundred and sixty men, a regiment that I can take 
anywhere and feel proud of them; a regiment that 
every man of them knows as much if not more than 
T do" myself." 

The orders came to fall in, and right here the 
curtain drops on Col. Larrabee. I have never heard 
of or seen him since. It is true that a great many 
different men had their turn in commanding the 
Twenty-fourth AVisconsin Itegiment, and it is also 
true that they were all good men, viz.. West, Ken- 
nedy, Eombach, Parsons, and last of all that young 
gnd brave boy. Col. Mc Arthur, whose gallantry at 
the Battle of Franklin I shall never forget. The 



16 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

rebels bad driven our men out of tbe breastworks 
tbat Ave were relieved from about an liour or so be- 
fore in order to cook some refreshments, for we 
were on advance guard duty about 48 hours and 
Avere bothered so much Avith rebel cavalry that Ave 
did not have much time to rest or eat. Marching 
into Franklin Ave Avere closely followed up, in the 
rear of our army, by rebel General Hood's infantry. 
We stacked arms, after being ''relieved," a quarter 
of a mile, I should think, from those breastworks. 
Our coffee was just beginning to boil and our soav- 
belly and crackers frying, AAdien the rebels charged 
those breastAVorks and droA^e our men out, and fol- 
loAved them up. They came through our stacked 
arms and over our fires, upsetting our coffee pots 
and frying pans, AAdth the rebels right at their heels 
and at our stacked arms as soon as Ave Avere. Every 
one of us Avas as mad as he could be after losing his 
nearly cooked dinner, and Ave felt as if Ave could 
whip the Avhole rebel army just at that moment, 
Avhen Col. McArthur called out, "Fall in, TAventy- 
fourth; take arms. Charge. Give um hell, boys. 
Give um hell, give um hell, TAventy-fourth." AYe 
did ''give um hell," and droA^e them back over the 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 17 

breastworks again. When he got the run on them 
we commenced shooting as they were jmnping back 
again over the breastworks, and they'd holler our, 
"Don't shoot, Yanks. For God Almighty's sake, 
don't shoot." Then some of them would get hit 
and cry out, "Oh." 

We got the breastworks and held them against 
several attempts to take them from us, until dark- 
ness came and everything was still. About 2 
o'clock in the morning, under cover of darkness, 
after the supply train and everything was across the 
river, we stole away out of those breastworks vdth- 
out making any noise, crossed the river, bunied the 
bridge and were safe on our journey to Xashville, 
where ended the last of our battle of the war. 

Right here I will mention a little incident that 
happened at one of the rebel attempts to take those 
breastworks from us at the Battle of Franklin. 
Capt. Fillbrooks, of Company D, a very brave man, 
noticed one of his men dodging or ducking his head 
from the noise of the rebel bullets. "Mike," said 
the Captain, "quit dodging your head there. Stand 
up to it and take it like a man." The word w^as no 
sooner out of the Captain's mouth when a bullet 



18 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

hit liini in the middle of the forehead and laid him 
oait dead. Mike said to him. "AVhy the devil in 
hell don't yon stand np and take it like a mon.'' 
And the word wasn't ont of Mike's month when ho 
got a scalp wonnd on the right side of his forehead. 
"Holy Moses," said he, "there is nothing like the 
dodging after all. Every time I heard it before I 
dodged it and it never hit me." 

The day before the Franklin battle we got into 
a brush with the rebel cavalry at a place called 
Spring Hill. The sun was settling down in the 
west. They had been j^icking at us all day, so they 
prepared for a charge. We could see the sun 
glisten on their swords as they drew sabers. They 
were on the east of us and charged across that plain 
with a seeming determination to play great havoc 
in our ranks. But the old First Brigade let them 
come near enough to give them one volley of mus- 
ketry and then came to a charge against cavalry, 
the front-rank men standing firmly placed in proper 
position all with fixed bayonets. Here they come 
hollering like demons, carbines empty, sabers 
drawn over their heads ready to come down with a 
cut and slash, but they couldn't do it. Every man 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 19 

stood firm. The Twenty-fourth was, in the front 
of the brigade, facing the enemy. They tried to 
force their horses to open a gap, bnt it was impreg- 
nable. They withdrew^ in disorder. AVe lay down 
and our batteries played havoc with those rebel cav- 
alry. You could see a rebel's head falling off his 
horse on one side and his body on the other, and the 
horse running and nickering and looking for its 
rider. Others you could see fall off with their foot 
caught in the stirrup and the horse dragging and 
trampling them, dead or alive. Others, the horse 
would get shot and the rider tumble head over 
heels, or may be get caught by his horse falling on 
them. I used to think before that cavalry charge 
what a terrible thing it would be to get into a battle 
with cavaliy and imagine how they could cut and 
slash and shoot at us and trample us down with 
their horses; but I thought different after that ex- 
perience with the rebel cavalry. Why, it is the 
greatest fun imaginable in time of w^ar for a solid 
column of infantry prepared for the attack to have 
a cavalry charge on them. The horses won't do it 
for the rider, and the rider can do nothing with a 
body of solid infantry. 



20 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

There was a little incident that happened be- 
fore the Battle of Chickamauga in a place we called 
the Devil's Basin, in Georgia. We had fifty rebel of- 
ficers and soldiers as prisoners. There was one rebel 
captain who was continually cursing and abusing 
Abe Lincoln and the Stars and Stripes. I was ser- 
geant of the gaiard in charge of the prisoners. The 
officer of the day gave me orders to have that kind 
of language stopped if I had to do it with the point 
of the bayonet. I put a new guard on, a man that 
I knew would stop it. After a while this rebel 
captain thought he would make the acquaintance of 
the new guard, and asked him what countryman he 
was. The guard replied with great emphasis, "My 
father is an Irishman, and my mother is a Dutch 
woman; the damnedist breed that ever lived; and 
if you don't keep your mouth shut I'll run this bay- 
onet right through you," at the same time going 
right for the rebel captain. The next day we let 
the rebel officers go and withdrew from the Devil's 
Basin towards Chickamauga. Our line was too long 
and weak, a great mistake of General Rosecrans. 
We were double-quicked into the Battle of Chicka- 
mauga on the morning of September 20, 1863, and 



I^X1DENTS AND ANECDOTES. 21 

filled a gap tliat was wide open right in front of t\ 
large body of rebel soldiers that was lying on the 
ground waiting for orders to go, as it appeared to 
nie, when General Little, our brave Brigadier-Gen- 
eral, led us up within plain sight of them. General 
I jttle was wounded slightly in the arm. The reb- 
els peppered it into us, as our brave Henry G. Rog- 
ers can tell you. Little moved his line back, which 
I think was wrong, for it encouraged the rebels and 
they came right for us. Just when the new line 
was formed General Sheridan rode by in a gallop 
down the right of the line. In passing the Twenty- 
fourth Wisconsin he said a word to General Little 
and went on. A limb of a tree brushed oft* his hat, 
but he did not stop. One of his orderlies dismount- 
ed and made several attempts before he replaced the 
hat on Sheridan's head, Sheridan paying no atten- 
tion whatever to the hat business, as it appeared to 
me. The rebs came for us in our new line. The 
firing commenced. Our brigade, General Little, 
was right behind our colors. I was between him 
and the colors. Oh, how the boys did load and fire. 
I saw rebels crawling on their hands and knees 
through the underbrush to get the Twenty-fourth 



22 WITH tup: rank and file. 

Wisconsin flag. They never got the flag, neithei 
did they ever go back. .-A man in my company wa^ 
firing high. I drcAv his attention to the fact, and 
ordered him to aim low. 

"Sergeant/' said he, "I have a son in the rebel 
army, and I imagine he is forninst me ont and I 
don't want to shoot him." 

''Well, then, aim low," said I, "and shoot the 
son of a gun right in the heart." Strange to say 
the son deserted the rebels and ate supper with his 
father that night. 

So determined and persistent was the fight in 
our part of tlie line, I heard a voice behind me say- 
ing, "Sergeant, what regiment is this?" 

I looked around and saw General Little, and 
said, "This is the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin, Gen- 
eral." 

He commenced falling off his horse and said, 
"Brave boys, brave boys." 

Those were the last words he ever spoke. He 
had his hand on the pone of his saddle, and as he 
was falling his hat fell off, his long auburn hair 
hung down, and he seemed to hang on to that saddle 
with his right hand until he was nearly to the 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 23 

ground. It is a sight I will never forget. I then 
looked to our left, and saw the rebels in our rear. 
The troops on our left had left us and we also left. 
As we were retreating in pretty good time, one ot 
our boys was just in front of me, making the besc 
time he could, and I keeping right up with him, 
w^hen he was hit and killed. Ho fell across my 
track and I fell on top of him. I thought we were 
both shot with the same bullet. I got up again all 
right and lit out. You could see the rebels and 
you could hear the bullets plainer because thert 
was but one side shooting. The bullets went zip, 
zip, into the leaves on the ground and around your 
ears as thick as bees. 

AYe got doA\m to the turnpike road. General 
Rosecrans and other generals were there, and tried 
to have us halt and form a line and charge the reb- 
els back. Rosecrans said, "The rebels are defeated 
and are retreating at another part of the line, and 
if you could have held them here five minutes 
longer the battle would be ours." Some stood and 
listened, and three times as many went on. 

The general took off his hat and said, "Boys, 
form a line here; there are enough of us to whip 



24 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

those rebels. AVe have them on the run in another 
part of the field. If you won't do it for my sake, 
do it for God's sake and for your country's sake.'* 
That brought a great many to halt and ready in line 
when a rebel solid shot, about a fifteen-pounder, 
came along and took off the right hand of one of the 
generals and part of the saddle he was' resting on. 
That was seen too quick. Some one started, and 
away we went until Ave found ourselves near a gap 
leading into Ringgold. 

General Sheridan took command of everything 
he could find. We got through the gap and into 
Chattanooga, and we were not long there before 
every man was three feet under gTound with a 
breastwork against the enemy. We thought they 
would be right on to us, but they were too glad to 
take a rest and too glad to get rid of us, for they 
were nearly as badly whipped as we were. 

This reminds me of the story of the Irishman 
and the Georgian who met and fought until both 
laid down along side of each other, completely ex- 
hausted. The Irishman threw his hand over on 
the Georgian's face and got him by the throat, but 
the Georgian got the Irishman's thumb in his 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 25 

mouth. They both held their grip and were found 
in that position and taken to the hospital. The 
Irishman got better first, but with his hand in a 
sling on account of his wounded thumb. He went 
to see the Georgian, and at first sight greeted him 
with, ^'Give me your hand, be jabers, you're nearly 
as good a man as meself." 

So we went to see the rebels at Mission Ridge, 
and reminded them of Chickamauga, and I'll tell 
you how we did it. The rebels had us hemmed in 
in the Valley of Chattanooga for two months and 
^Ye days, as near as I can recollect, mth railroad 
and river communication cut off. Our line wa&. 
sixteen miles long, the shape of a horseshoe, with 
the hind calking resting on the river. We were 
subjugated to quarter rations, not knowing how 
long a time we might be held inside of that circle. 
"We would draw our quarter rations and eat theni 
up right away, not having drawn for four days be- 
fore, and take chances on foraging or gobbling or in 
any way that we could pick up anything to eat. At 
first we had candles and had some light. We ran 
out of candles, and we used grease in a tin can with 
a rag, a piece of an old shirt, or anything that would 



26 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

answer the purpose of a wick, to make light. After 
a while we ran out of gTease. So whatever was 
left of the grease and wick in the old tin cans was 
thrown away and we did without light. After a 
while, when hunger began to pinch me very severe- 
ly, I hunted up the old tin can that belonged to my 
messmates and myself, and I found it with consid- 
erable grease in it, mixed with some flies and the 
old rag wick. I ate them all and relished them 
very much at the time, but did not have very much 
appetite for my next quarter ration. I mil say 
right here that if every soldier inside that line was 
asked to volunteer to drive the rebels off Mission 
Kidge there would be but one answer, and that 
would be, ''I will go, let me go." Such was the 
feeling of the troops hemmed in in the Valley of 
Chattanooga. Every man was healthy and hun- 
gry, could run a race or turn a somersault. Gen- 
eral Grant noticed that when he ordered a general 
review ; that is what it turned out to be, but the or- 
der was not given in that shape. The order was, 
"Be ready to march tomorrow, at such an hour, in 
light marcliing order.'' We went out in the valley 
right at the edge of the timber near Orchard Knob 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 27 

and had a fine general review. General Bragg 
commenced concentrating his troops. He thonght 
the Yankees were coming. A widow woman, at 
whose honse he had his headqnarters, asked him if 
he didn't think it better for her to move her famil^v 
away from there to Ringgold. He said, ''l^o, there 
were not Yankees enough in all Christendom to 
take that ridge." 

AVhen the review was over Grant ordered each 
commander to march his command to camp. The 
next v\^eek Grant had that same review over again. 
It annoyed Bragg as before. Review over with, 
we marched to camp again. The next week we 
got orders to get ready for the march to-mon*ow 
morning, heavy marching order, with eighty rounds 
of ammunition. Every man knew what that 
meant. Everybody knew we were going to take 
that ridge, or at least make the attempt, but the 
rebel General Bragg said it was nothing but that 
damned Yankee review again. The orders came 
from Grant after he had his lines all arranged, that 
when six cannons were fired in succession, 
1-2-3-4-5-6, the whole line was to advance and take 
the first line of rebel breastworks. There is no 



28 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

doubt in my mind but that Grant tliougiit that suf- 
ficiently far enough to go; with Hooker on Lookout 
Mountain; our communications opened up; with 
boatloads and carloads of supplies arriving, the reb- 
els would not be very likely to hang onto Mission 
Ridge any very great length of time. AYe (the first 
brigade of Sheridan's division) were near those can- 
uonSj however, that gave the order to advance, and 
wo went clear up to the top of the Ridge. We 
Avere after something to eat, and we got it, too. All 
the generals in the Union army could not stop us if 
they tried to after we got started up that Ridge. I 
remember in crossing the first line of trenches some 
of our boys fired into the trenches, and I made the 
remark that it was cowardly, but vre went on, on 
and up. The color-bearer of Company C, with the 
colors, myself and Kelson of Company H were the 
first men upon that Ridge in the line of our brigade. 
The first thing I did after the rebels skedaddled 
was to grab a full haversack and jerk it off a wound- 
ed rebel captain's neck. He was shot in the shoul- 
der and his hand lay on the mouth of the haver- 
sack on the down-hill side. I opened it and divided 
its contents with my comrades in the immediate vi- 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 29 

cinity. It was saturated with the rebel captain's 
blood, but we ate it all the same. 

Mission Ridge was ours. The rebels were mn- 
ning down the other side of the Ridge and we shout- 
ed "Chickamauga, Chickamauga." The sun was 
just going down, beautiful and bright. It was a 
splendid sight to ^\dtness. In a short time Gen- 
eral Sheridan made his appearance. At sight of 
the General, the boys clustered around him and 
commenced cheering that gallant commander. 
Some shouted for hard-tack, some for sow-belly and 
some for beef, while others shouted for whisky. 

The General raised his hat off his head until 
silence prevailed, and said, "Boys, in less than two 
hours' time you mil have all the hard-tack, all the 
sow-belly and all the beef you want; as for the 
whisky I can't say yet for sure.^' 

And in less than that time the boats and rail- 
road cars were unloaded without any detail being- 
made for that purpose. There were sixteen hun- 
dred head of cattle driven up on that Ridge, and in 
an hour's time they were in the frying pan. You 
could see men as far as the eye could reach, several 
lines of them, with boxes of crackers on their 



6{) WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

slioiiiders. Slieridan made his Vv^ord good, with the 
exception of the whisky. He advised with the sur- 
geon-general, and he said, ^^aSo whisky, General. 
Your men will eat enough, and perhaps too much, 
without whisky;" and true enough, some died eat- 
ing that night. You might wake up any time in 
the night and see men cooking and eating. A great 
many of us flung our blankets away coming up the 
Ridge. When it was time to lie down I went back 
to the battlefield for a blanket. The moon was full 
and shining bnght. I found nothing to suit till I 
came to a rebel Colonel who had a fine, large, gray 
overcoat with large cape and trimmed mth gold 
braid. I rolled him over and took it off; took it 
to camp under my arm thinking, "Xow I will have 
something fine and warm to put about me;" but, 
alas! when I got nicely settled do^vn for sleep I could 
not sleep. The thoughts of lying imder that rebel 
overcoat and taking it off him in that lonely battle- 
field, overcame me. The way he appared to me 
in the bright light of the moon made me think that 
I was robbing my dead enemy, when he was help- 
less to defend himself, and no mtness to the action 
but the sweet silver moon. Mv heart filled with 



INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 31 

emotion and I got np and took it back and laid it 
over him, then returned to my company and lay 
down under a part of my comrade's blanket, and 
immediately went to sleep with a full ration in my 
stomach. 

So ended the Battle of Mission Eidge, and the 
boys all felt happy. And let mo say right here 
that those few sketches of mine are not dreams, noi 
misty recollections of the past. It is not a play 
that you might read of in your parlor, or se© acted 
on the stage with fine sceneries and blue and red 
lights; but it is a living actuality — a play that we all 
had a hand in ourselves with a pure and manly mo- 
tive — to save our country and protect our country's 
flag. 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD, 

%i^ ^ «^ 

From Chickamauga to the Close of the "War — "Wounded at 
Adairsville, Ga. — Nourished by a Union "Woman. 

v^ «^ s^ 

An Address Delivered at E. B. Wolcott Post, G. A. R., Hall, Milwaukee, 
Wis., by Thomas J. Ford, March 11th, 1898. 

^5 t^ 5^ 

Commander and Comrades: Those pages that 
I have here to-night are a continuation of the past, 
and take in all my recollections in brief; and, in 
giving you those few more sketches of the incidents 
and privations of my army life, I Avill tell you, in 
my humble way, of an incident that happened 
shortly after we were driven into Chattanooga. 
After the Battle of Chickamauga, so many men 
were told off from each regiment to build up Fort 
AVood, detailed for fatigue duty. We worked hard 
that day. An order came around when the day^s 
work was done that General Sheridan was going 
to give us all a ration of whisky. We fell in in 

32 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 33 

two ranks, with our tin cups, in double-quick time. 
The whisky came around in buckets, full. It was 
measured out with a small tin cup emptied into our 
larger ones. I got my ration and drank it. My 
brother Daniel was standing in the rear of me. He 
never drank liquor nor used tobacco. The com- 
missary man ordered him to put out his cup and 
take his ration. Brother told him he didn't drink 
any and didn't want any. I turned around quick, 
and said, "Draw your ration, Dan, and give it to 
me." He did so, and I \vas veiy much pleased to 
get it. The boys in the line looked over each oth- . 
er's shoulders to see me drink the double ration of 
whisky, and one said to the other, "My God, I wish 
I had a brother in the army that didn't drink." 

At a place called Buzzard Roost^ perhaps bettei 
known in history as Rocky Face, the rebels Avere 
protected by natural breastworks and could not be 
driven away from in front. After several attempts 
a movement was made on their flank by General 
Kilpatrick's cavalry. The rebels soon discovered 
the movement and left from our front. At the 
time that General Howard was viewing through his 
fleld glass, Kilpatrick's cavalry were speeding to 



34 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

the rebels' right around by the valley road. He 
felt something touch him, and looking down he saw 
a bullet hole through his boot leg, which evident- 
ly had been aimed at him by some one in a much 
higher location than where he w^as standing, and, 
turning his glasses in that direction, he discovered a 
rebel up in a tree. Seeing the movements up there 
through the leaves, How^ard sent after a couple of 
his sharpshooters. They took in the situation. Mr. 
Rebel kept very still, thinking perhaps he might 
not be discovered, but our boys got a bead on him. 
They let go their sharpshooting rifles. There was 
an ^'Oh!'' and a scrambling and a shaking of the 
leaves and branches, and finally down comes the 
rebel's gun and next himself. Upon examination 
it was found that he had tied his arm with his hand- 
kerchief to a limb of the tree so as to steady himself 
while he was taking aim. The handkerchief be- 
came loose in the struggle, but remained around his 
arm as he fell. 

As we advanced through those natural breast- 
works of rocks some of our men that were killed 
were lying just at the opposite side of the rock from 
the rebels and w^ere stripped of their clothing. 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 35 

When we were advancing on this rocky mountain 
the rebs pried loose a great many of those large 
rocks and started them rolling down on ns, bnt we 
went up another direction, and marched about a 
week, picketing and skirmishing until the rebels 
made a stand at Resaca, which was a very hard 
fight. We advanced in line of battle to within a 
short distance of the rebels' breastworks, where w^e 
halted. There were two cedar rail fences, ten rails 
high with a stake and rider, right alongside of each 
other. It was evident that the owners of the land 
disputed the boundaries, or would not join fences 
with each other, consequently each one built and 
maintained his oa\ti fence on his own land, just in- 
side the line. We took advantage of that piece of 
contrariness, however, and soon pulled down both 
fences and piled them up into one. They made us 
a fine breastwork. We were in close quarters to 
the rebels; wo could see them plainly and they 
could see us. I remember in the part of the breast- 
work where I was we had a thin cedar rail on top. 
Two rebel bullets struck that rail and went through 
it and dropped down just as I raised my head from 
it to fire — a very close call for me. It was very 



36 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

wet weatlier. The ground was uneven and roiigli, 
all mild and sliisli. When firing ceased at night 
some of US lay down to sleep, while others stayed 
on duty in the breastworks. I rolled two dead 
comrades together where I wanted to lie down and 
another who was not quite dead was rolled cross- 
ways over their heads for a pillow. I slept very 
comfortably, with the exception of being disturbed 
once in a while from a hiccough or movement of 
muscles or peculiar noises coming from my pillow. 
On the right of us the battlefield took fire and 
burned a great many of our men, dead or wounded, 
that were lying there. It was a piece of open 
land where the grass was very thick the year be^ 
fore, and was neither pastured nor cut off. 

A few days previous to going into this fight we 
went through a very plentiful countiy. We halt- 
ed for camp one evening. Some from every com- 
mand, the same as usual, struck off foraging. They 
commenced coming in after a while mth hams and 
chickens. I remember by brother Dan and myself 
asked some one about the hams, and they said you 
might as well have one, they will be all gone any- 
way. And so we struck out and soon found the 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 37 

smoke-house. I made a rush in. There was just 
one shoulder left. I gTabbed it, and in going hy 
the house the woman was standing at the door cry- 
ing, and said that was the last piece of meat, and 
what would she and her children do now. Brother 
Dan and I agreed to give it to her. She put it un- 
der her bed. AYe went to camp empty-handed ; had 
plenty to eat of government rations and felt and 
slept better than if we had taken the meat from the 
widow. 

A¥e had a hard march the next day. When we 
camped that evening my feet were very painful, 
with scalding blisters, and as I was very tired I 
went down to a stream near by, took off shoes 
and socks, rolled my pants above my knees, sat 
down on the bank of the stream and placed my feet 
in the cool, running water. Oh, but it did feel re- 
freshing. I lay down on my back with my feet in 
that position, placed my hands imder my head and 
fell asleep ; was in that position until the cool of the 
morning began to break on me. I woke up much 
refreshed and no pain or soreness in my feet. 

I remember in marching through Huntsville, 
Alabama, about 11 o'clock A. M., our band struck 



38 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

up the tune of "Away Down Sontli in Dixie." Tlio 
regiment was at a right shoulder shift arms, with 
fixed bayonets. The sergeants walked on the side- 
walks, marching right in front, every man keeping 
perfect step. A woman was sitting on her dooi* 
step with her elbows on her knees, and holding a 
pan of potatoes in her hands that she had just 
strained the water from preparatory to putting 
them on the fire to cook for dinner. I noticed they 
were a different kind of potato from what I had 
ever seen, and politely asked her, "Please, madam, 
what do you call those potatoes?" 

She made answer in a very sarcastic manner, 
saying, "I don't call them at all; they come without 
calling." The next sergeant to me, Charles Pow- 
ers by name, a big, able fellow about six feet two 
inches in height, raised his right foot, and never 
losing his step to the music, hit the pan a kick, and 
pan and potatoes flew out on the street on top of 
the regiment, at the same time saying, "^ow, damn 
you, see if they'll come without calling." The 
regiment charged on the potatoes and came to right 
shoulder arms again with a potato on top of their 
bayonets, and not one potato was lost. We 



ON THE Battlefield. 39 

marclied into camp and cooked tliem, and Charley 
said to me, "Ford, you are a hell of a man to let 
that rebel talk to you in that way." 

"Well, how could I prevent her talking? I 
didn't know what she was going to say; but I'll tell 
you, Charley, I am mighty glad I didn't get that 
idck." 

We were going into camp one evening, and in 
passing by a farm-house our Chaplain noticed a lot 
of nice chickens. He called his servant — Sandy 
was his name for short. "Sandy, here is a quarter, 
go over there to that house and buy a chicken; we 
will have a chicken for supper. If they don't want 
to sell you any of their chickens don't you gobble 
any; don't you steal any of their chickens, Sandy." 

The Chaplain rode away a short distance and 
called after Sandy, saying, "^ow, Sandy, be sure 
and have a chicken for supper." It is needless to 
say Sandy got the chicken and the quarter, too. 

This Chaplain resigned. The marching and 
camping out were too severe on his delicate consti- 
tution. He was not a very rugged man. Our 
next chaplain was a drafted man, a wealthy farmer, 
one of the first men that had the thoroughbred 



40 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

sliort-horn cattle imported to tliis state from Eng- 
land. He created an influence over James T. 
Lewis, then Governor of Wisconsin, and received 
from the Governor a commission as Chaplain of the 
Twenty-fourth Wisconsin. The boys did not ap- 
preciate this drafted man as a chaplain, but rathet 
took it as an offense to have a drafted man sent 
down South to preach to them when he should have 
been sent with a musket. I will say right here 
that this man did no more good for the Twenty- 
fourth Wisconsin than Billy Bray, the jackass who 
to this day stands on the list of drafted men as form- 
ing one of the quota of Maiyland. The boys be- 
came determined to rout him by scaring him and 
making him think that they might do him bodily 
harm. We had a flag pole. We hoisted the flag 
every day and took it down at night. One morn- 
ing the Chaplain got up after a very pleasant 
night's sleep, as he told me when he came to my 
tent, seemingly under great excitement, telling me 
that there were burglars in his tent last night, and 
he never knew it until he awoke in the morning, 
and found his chair, his table, little writing desk 
and sheet iron heating stove, pipe and all, had been 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 41 

taken from his tent. Being intimately acquainted 
witli me, having known me since I was a little boy, 
he asked me if I would go with him in search of 
his stolen fnrniture. I did. We w^ent up and 
down every company street, waking them np and 
inquiring as we went along, but to no avail. Xo in- 
formation whatever could we get of the stolen fur- 
niture. AVe gave up the search and came back by 
regimental headquarters. In passing by the flag 
pole — it w^as early in the morning and the flag 
hadn't been hoisted yet — I happened to look up, 
and lo! what was there? 

"My God, Chaplain, look. "What's on top of 
that pole? Look at your furniture up there." 

He looked up and cried out in solemn and fer- 
vent prayer, wath hands extended upw^ards, "Thanks 
be to God on high that it ain't myself that is hang- 
ing up there this morning." 

There were no arrests made. The Chaplain 
sent in his resignation. It was accepted. 

This Chaplain introduced prayer meeting in 
CompanyD's tent one night. We had fire-places 
in the tents, with chimneys built of mud and sticks 
on the outside. You could reach your hand to the 



42 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

top of the chimney from the ground. John Mahan 
was stretched on his bnnk; Andy O'E'eil had one 
leg of his pants off, sewing a. rip; he had a very long 
thread in the needle. The Chaplain knelt down 
close by Andy and asked Mahan if he would not 
join in prayer. Mahan said he was tired and want- 
ed rest. 

"And don't you want me to pray for you?" 
asked the Chaplain. 

"Oh, yes, pray for me all you have a mind to," 
said Mahan. 

The Chaplain prayed. Each time O'E'eil put 
a stitch in his pants, in drawing the thread its full 
length brought his hand in close proximity to the 
Chaplain's face. He was seemingly very much in- 
terested in repairing his trousers. 

The Chaplain asked, "Now, Andy, don't you 
feel the spirit of God coming within you?'^ 

"No," said Andy, drawing his thread its full 
length with his hand against the Chaplain's face, 
"and I don't think it will come while the devil is so 
close to me." At the same time the boys outside 
dropped two or three bunches of cartridges down 
the chimney into the fire inside. R-r-r-r-rapp-zip- 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 43 

zip-zip, went tlie cartridges like a volley of mus- 
ketry. The Chaplain sprang from his knees, made 
a rush for the door and then outside, saying, "Sure 
enough, I believe the devil is in that tent." 

We drove the Confederate General Anderson 
across the river at a place called Loudon, Tennes- 
see. He burnt the bridge after his troops and sup- 
plies had crossed it. The picket lines of both 
armies were stationed on both sides of the river. 
An annistice was agi'eed upon. Firing ceased, so 
the boys might go in bathing. Every day we 
would swim out further, and so would the rebels. 
We came pretty close together one day, so close 
that we dashed water into each other's faces and 
ducked one another under the water, and about 
faced and swam to shore, when a big rebel dived 
under the water and came up in our ranks and swam 
to shore with us. He was taken to General Sheri- 
dan's headquarters, naked as he was born. They 
clothed him and sent him to N^ew York, the only 
chance he said he ever had to get away. Being 
down South before the war he was held and forced 
into the rebel ranks; but that stopped the bathing 
in the river. The armistice was mthdrawn. If 



44 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

you would sliow your face after that you would 
hear a bullet whistle. 

Captain Pai^ons had charge of the Twenty - 
fourth Wisconsin at this place. An order came 
from headquarters for a sergeant to take charge of 
a detail of men to he sent out in the country with a 
foraging train of w^agons, mules and drivers and 
wagon master to gather in all the wheat from the 
farmers' granaries and haul it to a grist mill that 
General Sheridan had confiscated to grind flour for 
his army. The order fell on me, because it was 
my turn to go on detail. I reported at Sheridan*s 
headquarters, and he himself gave me instructions 
what to do. My detail of men was soon ready, and 
Ave started with our wagons and wagon master ont 
to the mill, and the next day commenced hauling 
in the Avheat. I was very much interested in that 
business, having been raised on a farm. With 
some of the fanners we had a great deal of trouble 
to get them to oj)en their granaries peaceably, espe- 
cially those who were rebels. AVe ground forty 
barrels a day. It was a water-power mill. Every 
night I was offered gTeenback money for flour, but 
never took a cent. Thev* would tell sorrowful 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 45 

stories about their little children starving. I would 
tell them that their little children were of no con- 
sequence when compared with the condition of 
thirty thousand men stationed in Loudon waiting- 
for this flour. ''Go and see Sheridan; he may give 
you some." The owner of the mill was in the mill 
office in the daytime when the wheat was brought 
in. I signed the vouchers for the number of bush- 
els of wheat weighed and gTound into flour, and 
that, with the supplies we had, furnished plenty of 
food. Every farmer that we took wheat from had 
the miller's signature and mine attached to his or- 
der on General Sheridan, and if he proved his loy- 
alty to the Union he got spot cash, or its equivalent, 
for his wheat. My work being over, I received an 
order one morning to report at Sheridan's head- 
quarters. We got into camp in the afternoon and 
formed a line in front of the General's tent. I 
found him inside and reported. He said, ''You 
have done very w^ell, sergeant; you deserve a pro- 
motion. Have your men breal^ ranks right where 
they are and go to your respective quarters." I 
did not think any more about it. I simply was 
glad that I pleased the General and did my duty. 



46 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

In returning to tlie regiment I fouiM Col. Mac- 
Arthur in command. I learned that Capt. Par- 
sons would not give up his command of the regi- 
ment to MacArthur until he got orders to do so 
from General Sheridan, which were promptly 
given. 

Liquor was plenty around Loudon, but at very 
high prices. One man paid $10 for a canteen full. 
He became disorderly and w^anted to shoot some- 
body. He was court-martialed and sent to Dry 
Tortugas. I learned afterwards that he was par- 
doned and came home. The bridge across the 
river that the rebels burned* was rebuilt by govern- 
ment employes with the assistance of the pioneer 
corps, and we crossed to the opposite side on an- 
other campaign. Our regimental bakers at this 
place turned out several loaves of bread Avith an old 
chew of tobacco in the center of the loaf. 

From Resaca w^e followed up the rebel General^ 
Johnston, and came very close to his rear guard at 
a place called Calhoun, Georgia. "We crowded 
them very closely. The next day Johnston had his 
advanced troops stop at Adairsville and build 
breastworks of logs and earth, and located them- 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 47 

selves in the houses, while the main army passed 
through and formed ready for battle. We fol- 
lowed them right up, but we suddenly came to a 
halt. They were ready for us. Johnston man- 
aged his retreat with good generalship from Resa- 
ca. We could not budge them. We marched 
across the road into a field by the right flank, right 
in front, towards the rebels' left, when Col. Mac- 
Arthur gave the command '^By the left flank, 
charge." When I was in the act of executing the 
command I got a broadsider in the left jaw bone. 
The bullet struck me in the lower angle of the jaw, 
breaking the bone at that place, and coursed down- 
wards, inside the collarbone, and lodged in the cav- 
ity of the chest. Dr. Hasse, our regimental sur- 
geon, treated me on the battlefield. I remember 
he cut my accoutrements with his knife and left 
them on the, ground, cut the string of my blanket, 
spread it out and laid me on it. 

Our regiment advanced and was stubbornly re- 
sisted, but held their ground by inch until the reb- 
els w^ithdrew. A great many of our boys bit the 
dust that day. It w^as a very severe fight for the 
time it lasted, just a few hours. It w^as estimated 



48 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

tliat the loss Avas 500 killed and wounded. Such 
was rebel General Johnston's fighting tactics on a 
retreat. He punished his pursuers very severely. 
General John ISTewton had charge of our division 
in the absence of General Sheridan. It was 
thought at one time during the fight that our side 
would have to give way, and an order came from 
headquarters to the surgeons in the field to move 
their wounded a certain distance to the rear. There 
were four rebel bullets dropped on my blanket 
while I lay there. We moved to where there were 
a lot of small houses and a large mansion. In go- 
ing along the turnpike road the rebel bullets and 
cannon balls came fast and lively. This was the 
trying moment. It was desperate, as I could plain- 
ly hear, and very well understood the situation. 
The brave boys began coming in wounded thick 
and fast, as the battle raged on. But at last vic- 
tory was oui-s. The battle was won; but a high 
price was paid for it; the loss of life, limb, health 
and blood. I remember in going to the rear, as or- 
dered, a Union captain was mth us. He had his 
nose shot off, or all but a part of the skin near his 
forehead, which was holding it from falling. It 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 49 

was swinging on liis face like tlie pendulum of a 
clock. The rebels sent a cannon ball down the 
road. As it passed by, this captain turned around, 
and, with much emphasis, said, ^'You rebel sons of 
guns, I hope you will get your belly full before 
night,'' and at that instant a rebel bullet took him 
right in the abdomen and went through his body. 
He fell dead where he spoke the words. We ar- 
rived at our new hospital off the battlefield. Di.\ 
Hasse placed me in a chair on the porch and ran a 
probe down in my neck. 

"Ah, Ford," he said, "the bullet has passed 
downwards; it is in your chest; perhaps I can find 
it," and I began to faint away. He pulled out his 
probe and turned around his canteen, placed it in 
my mouth and told me to take a swallow. I took 
hold of the canteen and held it until I had three 
good swallows. 

The doctor took the canteen and said, "Do you 
think you can stand it now?" 

"Yes, doctor, probe away now all you mind to." 
And he did, and said it was no use in punishing 
me. He could not locate the bullet, and even if 
he did, it could not be removed without loss of life; 



60 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

it may never injure me, but lie could not tell now 
what the result might be in the future. 

I was assigned to a place to lie down on the 
floor. I soon fell asleep, and when I awoke my 
neck, face and breast seemed to be one thickness. 
Well, I thought I would get up, but no, my head 
would not rise by my will. I thought if I just 
had somebody to lift my head for me I would be ail 
right, when, seemingly by instinct, my right hand 
raised and caught myself by the hair of my head, 
and I was on my feet. 

An order came to the surgeons to send the 
wounded to Chattanooga. All who were shot in 
the legs and not able to walk would be carried in 
ambulances to Eesaca and there take the train foi 
Chattanooga. I came under the order of able to 
walk, as the meaning of that term is applied in 
cases of emergency, where transportation is limited, 
as it was in that case. We struck out, a lot of us 
that had to walk, but soon commenced trudging 
along according to our strength, until there were 
hardly two together. Every stream I would cross 
I would dip my head in the water and then fill my 
old Kossuth hat full and put it on my head. Ar- 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 51 

riving at Callioiin early in the afternoon, I stopped 
at the first house. There were two rebel ladies 
standing on the porch looking at the wounded an 
they passed by. I was very weak and wanted some 
milk, as I could not eat or chew anything, my 
mouth being nearly closed. By a great many signs 
and mutterings I succeeded in getting one to un- 
derstand what I wanted, but she said they had no 
milk; that there was a Union woman in the next 
block over there that had two or three cows and 
she most always had some milk. 

"You got hit, did you?" she asked. "Well, wc; 
don't like to see you-uns get hurt, but w^e do like to 
see you'uns get licked. You'uns killed my true 
love when you went by here the other day. He 
stayed behind his command to bid me good-bye and 
to have a little talk, when you Yankees came onto 
him and three others of our boys. They ran into 
the brush down there," pointing in the direction 
that she wanted me to know, "and there you killed 
my true love." 

I listened very attentively, with my eyes fixed 
on a picture that she wore on her breast. I recog- 
nized the picture and muttered out to her as best I 



52 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

could that if she thought so much of her true love 
she ought to see about it and have him buried. He 
was lying down there a little ways from the turn- 
pike road, swelled up as big as a two hundred 
pounder. 

The circumstances concerning my knowledge 
of this incident are: Those four rebels ran from 
the brush to a small log-house about fifteen or 
twenty rods from the road where we were march- 
ing, and were firing from their hiding place. A 
squad was sent out there and surrounded the little 
log-house. This true love escaped by jumping 
through the window, and was shot and killed. The 
other three were taken prisoners. 

I made my way to the Union woman in the 
next block. I saw a dozen wounded men go into 
the house. Thinks I to myself, "There is no chance 
there for me to get any milk,'' but before I reached 
the house they came out again, and I went in. She 
was a fine, clever-looking woman, vdth three little 
girl children. I made known my wants. 

"Yes," she said, "I have plenty of milk for you, 
although I have been refusing it all day; so many 
came together that the little I had would do them 



ON TPIE BATTLEFIELD. 53 

no good." At the same time she poured the milk 
out into a cooking utensil and placed it on the stove 
and said, "As you came alone I have plenty for you ; 
and indeed you need it more than any one who has 
come in here to-day.'' 

She broke some round crackers into the milk, in- 
quired about my wound, said it smelled bad, took 
off the bandage, w^ashed it and dressed it with new 
linen and threw my old bandages out doors. By 
this time my milk and crackers were cooked. A^ 
I could not chew or open my mouth to take in 
coarse food, she fixed it so it was thin, like gruel; 
cooled it sufficiently, spread a table cloth on part of 
the table w^here I sat, and I felt just ninety-nine per 
cent, better than when I first entered that house. 
Her cheerfulness and willingness to do good made 
me feel so much better that I could not express h 
by words. I drew that food through my teeth 
with such force that it did not take a very great 
length of time to put it where it was much needed 
for a nourishment. 

I will say right here when you found a Union 
man or woman in the Southern States, you found 
them as loyal and as true as steel. I was now ready 



54 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

to go on my journey to Eesaca. The train was to 
leave there at 8 o'clock. Before I left Adairsville 
hospital I changed a $5 bill and gave half of it to 
a comrade of mine, John Howard, who was shot 
in the elbow. Twenty-six pieces of bone Avere 
taken out of his elbow. Dr. Hasse wanted to cut it 
off, but Howard said he would rather die with it on 
than live with it off. The doctor thought possibly 
that he might save it. The weather was very 
warm. Gangrene set in. His arm was cut off 
three times, and the poor fellow, after a long season 
of suffering, went to the other shore. Changing 
the $5 bill, which was all the money I had, left me 
with two dollars and a half in fifty cent shinplast- 
ers, as we called that kind of money. In bidding 
good-bye to my good Union woman, with tears in 
my eyes I offered her all the money I had. She 
would not take any. She said it did her so nmch 
good to do something for a Union soldier that she 
only wished she could do more. I took her address 
and bade her good-bye. Her three little girls fol- 
lowed me out to the gate leading on the sidewalk, 
and I slipped fifty cents apiece in their little hands. 
I felt so much better, and my heart was so filled up 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 55 

with tlie kindness tliat I received from that good 
Union woman in the very heart of the Confederate 
States, that if I had had it I could have given those 
little ones one hundred dollars apiece as willingly 
as I gave them fifty cents each. That woman 
saved my life, for gangrene was beginning to show 
itself, and I never could have reached Resaca with- 
out that nourishment and the cleansing of my 
wound. I readier Resaca just as the train was 
pulling out, gTabbed hold of the side door of the 
last box-car and the boys pulled me in while the 
train was moving quite fast. 

It commenced raining very hard and the night 
was as dark as pitch. Our train jogged along at 
the rate such trains usually do. We came to an 
up-grade, when all at once there came a crash and 
a smash. I was in the hindmost end of the rear 
car and was jerked up to the front end in a short ei 
time than you could say Jack Robinson. A train- 
load of new recruits w^as coming to the front, the 
cars being full inside and many on top. The en- 
gineer should have stopped at the station and 
switched until the train with the wounded went by. 
He paid no attention to the signal and went right 



56 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

ahead to tlie top of a grade, where he pulled the 
throttle of his engine wide open and let her go. 
Jumping off his engine, he made his escape. He 
was a rebel, and took advantage of his first oppor- 
tunity to apply his vengeance. It was a terrible 
sight to look at. Many of the wounded were killed 
and some of the new recruits and many were dis- 
abled. It took till late next day to get fixed up for 
our destination. There I lost my diary, with the 
address of that good Union woman that did so much 
for me at Calhoun, Georgia. 

After I recruited up some, and others the same 
as myself, who were supposed not to be fit for duty 
within a certain time, we were sent farther nortli 
to make room for new-comers. I was sent to I^ew 
Albany, Indiana, where I remained two weeks, 
when a general order was issued that all not fit for 
duty inside of sixty days should be sent to their 
respective state hospitals. An examination was 
made by the surgeon in charge, and I was sent to 
Madison, Wisconsin. After I was a few weeks in 
Madison I called on Governor J. T. Lewis in re- 
gard to my commission. It was then the tenth in 
order on file in his ofiice, but he would give me one 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 57 

then and there. There were vacancies m my com- 
pany. I refused to take it. There were others 
higher in rank than I, and I did not want to jump 
over them; and, in fact, we came home without a 
commissioned officer, an orderly sergeant in com- 
mand of the company, John T^. Keifer, who re- 
ceived his commission dated back, as captain, as 
brave a boy as ever lived to draw saber. Ed. 
Blake, a corporal in my company, carried a com- 
mission in his pocket that he received from the Gov- 
ernor, but never reported for duty as an officer. 
Such was the honor the old boys had for each otlier 
in rank. 

I stayed in Madison about two months and 
could have had my discharge given me by Surgeon- 
General Swift, medical director of the Western 
Department, with headquarters at Milwaukee, but 
would not take it. I wanted to go back and take 
my chances of coming home with the rest of the 
boys. I had the use of my limbs all right and 
could shoot, but had to be very careful how I bit 
the cartridge. There were six pieces of bone taken 
from my left lower jaw, and it hurt very much to 
bite of! the cartridge. 



58 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

My memory now takes me back to my regi- 
ment, with which I was in several battles after my 
four months' absence on account of my Avound. 
And now this brings me to the last battle of ]^asli- 
ville, December 15th and 16th, 1864. We fought 
the rebel General Hood, who had followed us from 
Franklin and fortified himself in our front, near 
Nashville. We marched out to them and made the 
attack. They held us back. We were relieved by 
a brigade of colored troops. While we were cook- 
ing something to eat the colored troops made a 
charge on the rebel works and got as far, or to a 
distance where the rebels had fallen trees towards 
us, as an obstruction to our advancement. There 
the colored brigade fired one volley and then lay 
down. The rebels peppered it to them so thick 
and fast, they even stood up on their breastworks 
and took aim at that black cloud, as they called 
them. We were marched down there again, in 
double-quick time, the rebels shouting and shooting 
and waving their hats like so many demons. When 
they saw us coming for them right through and over 
the colored troops and tree branches they ceased 
firing and had their arms stacked when we climbed 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 59 

their breastworks, took off their hats and surren- 
dered, saying, ''Hello, Jack; hello, Tom; hello, Jim. 
Say, Yanks, never send a black cloud to take our 
breastworks. We were retreating when we saw 
them coming. When some one said, ^It's a black 
cloud, boys; let's every man stand fast; never bo 
taken prisoners or surrender to them darkies, or 
give them our breastworks while there is a man of 
us left alive.' " 

And then we commenced shaking hands with 
each other. There were some of them who were 
nearly barefooted, with pants ripped nearly up to 
their knees; tall, fine-looking, good-hearted fellows, 
from Georgia. This ended the battles of the war, 
so far as we w^ere concerned, and old Pap. Thomas 
drank the health of the old Army of the Climber- 
land. We stayed around Nashville for some time, 
got our discharge, and, on the lOtli day of June, 
1865, broke ranks in Milwaukee. I bought a suit 
of citizen's clothes for $85 that could be bought to- 
day for $25. 

There was a strong Fenian movement in Mil- 
waukee just about that time, with the object in view 
of taking Canada. I happened in to Melm's, a 



60 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

• 

saloon where the new Pabst building now stands, if 
my memory serves me right, and I think it does. 
There was a big crowd of men in there talking war, 
Fenians and Canada, all feeling good. Of course, 
I had a say about the war and other topics of con- 
versation that were sprung into discussion as well as 
anybody else had, and seemed to interest some of 
my hearers. They wanted me to get up on a round 
table near by. There were two or three rows of 
tables in there. I would not get up on the table. 
I was taken hold of and placed on the table. Well, 
I talked a little while, and then came down to war 
matters. I said the Battle of Stone Eiver lasted 
seven days and it cost this government nine mill- 
ions of dollars a day, and asked, "What would we 
do if we didn't have a government to back us? Do 
you think we could carry on a war by some one of 
us having a few dollars in our pockets? Foolish 
idea; that is your predicament, gentlemen." Of 
course, that was disparaging the movement, but I 
did not intend it for that particular purpose. 1 
was simply telling the truth as well as I knew how, 
when somebody hit me. I jumped off the table, 
lost my hat in the row and never found it. 



ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 61 

I went to Illinois to work as a farm hand for $ I 
a day for every day in the year, wet or dry, hail, 
rain or sunshine, board and washing free, and with 
what money I had saved nj), bought a piece of land 
at twenty dollars per acre, with a mortgage of 
$1,500 on it, payable in gold coin, but it was paid 
off with the greenback dollar. I lived on that farm 
for twenty-six years and brought it to a very high 
state of cultivation. I sold it out seven years ago, 
at one hundred dollars per acre, the first $100 aero 
land that was ever sold in my township, and came 
to Milwaukee, the scene of my boyhood days. I 
have been a delegate to state and county conven- 
tions and held offices of trust in the township where 
I lived; but, commander and comrades, I can say 
to you, with candor, that I never saw an assembly 
of men that act more gentlemanly with each other, 
and that I felt more proud of, and that I felt more 
at home with than I do with the members of E. B. 
Wolcott Post. 



PULPIT AND PRESS. 

{^% ^* ^w 

An Afgtiment in Favor of the Power of the Press as Com- 
pared with that of the Clergy. 

f^n 4^* t^* 

Delivered at Phenix School House, Towanda Township, 111., Februarys, 
1877, by Thomas J. Ford. 

t^* t^* f^* 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen and Hon- 
orable Judges: In choosing a side on the ques- 
tion before you I am influenced by nothing save 
conviction, and, in saying what little I do, to show 
that the press has more influence than the pulpit, I 
am not guided by a desire to detract from the mer- 
its of the pulpit, but simply by a wish to have the 
press estimated at its proper value. In discussing 
the question we must seek effects, and, by compar- 
ing them, arrive at a correct decision. And right 

62 



PULPIT AND PRESS. 63 

here I wish, honorable judges, ladies and gentle- 
men, that YOU would remember that all examples 
of times past are not fair ones. When we consider 
that preaching has been practiced from the earliest 
ages, even from before the time of Christ, the great 
Preacher, down through the Middle Ages, when 
there was no such thing as printing even, and that 
printing itself was invented as late as 1441, while 
the press, as we now know it, is a product of the lat- 
ter part of the present century, all examples of the 
power of the pulpit, therefore, that are taken from 
olden times are unfair, and the question must be 
considered as it is framed, "Which has the most in- 
fluence at the present time?" And even now your 
decision must be arrived at by cool, patient investi- 
gation, and you must set down Bible banging and 
pulpit shouting at their proper worth and estimate 
the influence of the press, which acts like the still 
small voice of conscience, at its real value; you 
must bring scales, more delicate than Fairbank's 
cattle scales, and be prepared to weigh small pigs 
one by one as carefully as your Christmas beeves, 
for you may be assured if we bring enough of therii 
the sum of their weights will be greater than that 



64 



WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 



of the monster cattle. Here is wliere tlie advocates 
of the pulpit have the advantage. Anyone can 
see the effect of the conversion of a sinner or the 
result of a revival, but to measure the silent influ- 
ence of the paper requires greater judgment. The 
most casual obser^'Cr can see the dust of the thresh- 
ing machine, but the man must be right there who 
sees the number of bushels threshed. So, gentle- 
men, if the sum of all the influence of the press oui- 
weighs the influence of the pulpit, then must you 
decide for the press. 

They may point you to revival preaching and 
show you how Moody converts his thousands; bu-t 
you must consider how much he is helped by 
Sankey and the daily papers that create a kind of 
spiritual atmosphere about him, because a force acts 
at an instant of time. You must not infer that its 
effect is greater than if it acts through ages. Con- 
stant dropping wears the rock, and mechanics 
teaches us that a force creates the same result, 
whether acting in a moment or at length. You 
may burn a cord of wood in the open air, but be- 
cause its blaze is seen the farthest you must not in- 
fer that it has a greater effect than if burned in the 



PULPIT AND PRESS. 65 

furnace that maJves the steam that gi-inds your daih 
bread. In England, where the pulpit has an in- 
fluence in temporal as well as spiritual affairs, they 
speak of the third estate of the kingdom, and 
enumerate those estates or classes of men, such as 
the lawyers, the Parliament, the clergy, the crown. 
They call the houses of Parliament the two estates, 
and the third is not the clergy or even the crown, 
but the press. There the whole kingdom bows be- 
fore the utterances of the London Times, w^hich is 
called the Thunderer. The papers there influence 
finance, legislation and the policy of the govern- 
ment. The press there is recognized as having 
more influence than the pulpit or the clergy, and, 
why ? Go with me to our own legislature, and you 
will see the reason, and you will see also how^ much 
the press has to do with the laws that govern us. 
You will see before each member his pile of news- 
papers, and can notice how eagerly he scans the 
columns to see words of commendation or condem* 
nation. You can see how much he is influenced by 
his little home papers in his votes and speeches. 
Some years ago the financial editor of the London 
Times was indicted and removed from his position 



66 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

because lie wrote articles that influenced the money 
markets. It shook the money centers when corrup- 
tion was shown in a newspaper editor, but it scarce- 
ly causes a ripple of excitement when a minister is 
corrupt. The church itself concedes the power of 
the press and supports them accordingly. In sim- 
ple numbers it is plain that the papers have the 
greatest power. 

If you consider how each man's thoughts and 
actions are controlled by what he reads you must 
say that the influence of the press is greater than 
the pulpit. It has been well said that the pen is 
mightier than the sword, and it might be added 
or the pulpit either. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is another argu- 
ment worthy of your attention, and it is a well-set- 
tled fact that the eye assists tlie mind in remember- 
ing anything. Can you say that the words of the 
preacher have the same effect on the memory as the 
printed page? Test it yourself, gentlemen; let 
any one read a book aloud and see who has the 
freshest recollection of the subject — he who reads 
it or he who simply hears it read. I think that not 
even the affirmative will contend that the hearer 



PULPIT AND PRESS. 67 

understands the matter as well as the reader, and, 
this point conceded, it must follow that as the press 
has the greatest audience it has more influence. 
More money is spent for papers than for preachers. 
K^ow, ladies and gentlemen and honorable judges, 
in the argiiment of this, as in the discussion of all 
other questions, we can arrive at no final decision. 
It is not like telling which of two small objects 
weighs the most, but as though you were to at- 
tempt to tell which of two sections of land had the 
most black soil in it. Each one must at least de- 
cide for himself, and yet there are some clear and 
strong facts from which we can form a judgment, 
and from those facts that I have given you I am 
constrained to say that the press has more influence 
than the pulpit. Look how universal is the force 
that the joress exerts from the highest to the lowest 
far and \\ade. Where is the family in McLean 
County that does not see and read the weekly pa- 
per? There is no one here who cannot tell of 
scores of families that scarcely ever see the inside 
of church. AVhat was it that passed the pension 
bill? Xothing but the united voice of the press 
speaking the A\dll of the people educated by the 



68 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

press. Go into CongTess or any of your legislatures 
and you will see papers read and quoted; and the 
papers actually dictate legislation. Look at the 
amount invested in newspapers and in churches in 
the United States. It is fixed by the last census at 
three hundred and fifty millions of dollars. And 
the amount paid to preachers will run it up to five 
hundred millions invested directly for the pulpit, 
and thisj too, is aside from the amount invested in 
seminaries. The amount invested in newspapers 
does not reach half this sum, yet the number of 
people reached by the papers is immensely greater 
than that reached by the pulpit. Let us come down 
to familiar instances. The Pantagraph, for in- 
stance, has a circulation of 13,700 papers per week. 
Each paper is read by five persons and you have an 
audience of sixty-eight thousand persons reached 
every week by the Bloomington Pantagraph. The 
sum invested in the First Methodist Church is more 
than is invested in The Pantagraph, but it would 
be idle to say the influence exerted by the preacher 
in that church is equal to the influence exerted by 
The Pantagraph. Each issue of the daily contains 
as much and each issue of the weekly four times as 



PULPIT AND PRESS. 69 

mucli as lie gives to his hearers each Sunday. And 
so it is all over the land. Clearly, then, for the 
money invested the press has the greatest influence. 
Suj^pose as much money were invested in papers as 
there is in churches. Would not the effects be 
wonderful ? What is printed in the paper's may be 
read time and again, what is uttered from the pulpit 
may be heard only once, and then lost forever. It 
is not reasonable to suppose that the pulpit has as 
much influence as the press. What is it that influ- 
ences legislation, the pulpit or the press? Un- 
doubtedly the press. Did you ever hear of a con- 
gressman or legislator quoting a preacher in sup- 
port of a measure? J^ever. Yet the law is some- 
thing that affects each individual. Did you ever 
hear of the pulpit controlling the market? E'ever. 
Yet this is what the press is doing daily. What 
was it that brought the rebellion upon us? Noth- 
ing but the continual howling of the Southern 
press. In war, in peace, in money matters, in 
everything and everywhere, the press has the great- 
est influence. Educate by the press, bring pure, 
good, sound papers into your family, and be assured 
you are throwing around them the greatest protec- 



70 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

tion. Elevate the standard of the press, and may 
there always be a fearless, independent press in our 
land tliat will not hesitate to aj^ply the goad to those 
in high places. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank yon for yonr at- 
tention. 




THAT LEXINGTON IMPUDENCE. 

^% 5(^ 8^* 

An Arraignment of the Democratic Party on Account of its 
Platform During the Garfield Campaign, 

5^* 5^* t^* 

Written on a Bed of Sickness by Thomas J. Ford, and Published in the 
Newspapers of Bloomington, 111., November, 1880. 

5^ t^ t^ 

To the Editor: In your account of the Demo- 
cratic rally at Lexington I noticed that mention is 
made of the delegation from Merna carrying a 
banner witii the inscription "Irish of Merna all for 
Hancock." I assume the authority to say that the 
"Irish of Merna are not all for Hancock/' although 
the Democratic speakers of Bloomington have 
made several speeches at Merna, telling what dis- 
tress the country is now in under the bad manage- 
ment of the Eepubican party. 

About the surplus. They say that there are 
one hundred millions of dollars in the United States 
treasury, and bring that in as an act of stealing 

71 



72 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

from tlie people. Where is the nation, where is 
the state, county or town, where is the church, the 
school or one of the different societies that does not 
boast of it when they have money in their treasury '^ 
Should Democracy get control I fear the money 
would not be in the treasury very long. How 
much money was in the treasury when Buchanan 
and his Democratic cabinet left the White House 
and turned over this government to the Republican 
party, all tattered and torn and nearly in a state of 
insurrection ? 

Should the Democratic party get into ]30wer 
this fall the reins of this government will be peace- 
ably placed in their hands, with the ship of state 
sailing in a clear channel. About the tariff. The 
Democratic speakers tell their audience that boots 
and shoes are too high, and that a change in the ad- 
ministration- will be the adoption of free trade, 
which will compel the manufacturers of this coun- 
try to bring down their prices or close up business. 
The Republican party don't want to close up the 
manufacturing business of this country by adopting 
any such measures, for England can undersell any 
other nation on the globe. Her labor costs little 



THAT LEXINGTON IMPUDENCE. 73 

or nothings and I believe that I know that the ma- 
jority of the people of the United States do not 
want to give England a chance to bring her old 
store goods and land them on our shores free from 
tariff for the purpose of under-selling our own 
tradesmen. 

The effect on Ireland. In or about the year 
1800 Ireland was one of the most prosperous man- 
ufacturing countries in Europe. She continued 
such until about the year 1820, when England 
succeeded in persuading the Irish Parliament to 
adopt the free-trade system. As soon as that was 
accomplished, England unloaded her cargoes of 
goods free from tariff on Ireland's shores, and down 
went Ireland's manufacturing establishments. 
Look at the condition in which the Democratic par- 
ty left this country in 1860-61. It took fifty bushels 
of good sound corn (not soft whisky corn) delivered 
in Bloomington to buy a pair of $5 boots; farm 
hands husked corn for 50 cents a day; thousands of 
farms were under mortgage; there was nO' money to 
pay with; the situation was terrible in the extreme 
until the Republican party, fully competent to 
meet the emergency, issued the greenback dollar 



74 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

that was welcomed by the laborer and the farmer 
and drove out the Democratic stump-tail cuiTency, 
but was despised by the capitalists, who had their 
money loaned on farms and on other real estate on 
mortgages drawn payable in gold coin. They re- 
fused to take the greenback for a dollar, but the 
Republican party said this is a dollar and you must 
take it, which filled with joy the hearts of many a 
father, wife and mother. Men that I know, and 
many of them who had very close picking to 
live under the Democratic administration, are now, 
by industry, close attention to business, and mth 
the Republican flag of freedom floating over their 
heads, marching along unmolested in their busi- 
ness, yes, protected in their industries and enter- 
prises until they are now wealthy. If they had to 
pay off their mortgages in gold coin money a poor 
man would have lost his home, for it took about 
three dollars in gi-eenbacks to buy one gold dollar. 
I am one of the many that once went to pay off a 
mortgage of that kind, the amount being five hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, including interest, due to a 
well-known capitalist of Bloomington. I tendered 
the money to him in greenbacks. He said, "Xo, 



THAT LEXINGTON IMPUDENCE. 75 

sir, I want about sixteen hundred dollars of them 
things or five hundred and fifty in gold." I in- 
sisted that he should take the greenbacks. He said 
he would see his attorney, George O. Robinson, a 
well-known, lawyer of Bloomington, and after so 
doing he accepted my money and released the mort- 
gage. And this is only one instance in thousands 
of such cases all over the United States. When the 
Southern majority of the Democratic party rebelled 
against the Union they took what gold they could 
get hold of to Richmond and left us but very little 
to meet our obligations. And now, after twenty 
years of Republican administration, faithful and 
true to their trust, and to the people of all sections 
aiid classes, they, by economy and good manage- 
ment, have succeeded in being able to place in the 
treasury of the Uniied States the sum of over four 
hundred millions of gold dollars to the credit of the 
people of the United States, ready when called 
upon to be paid out to the just claimant. That is 
the way ever}^ honest man meets his just debts. He 
always has it ready if he possibly can. There are 
a great many first voters and other young men that, 
of course, have no personal knowledge of how a 



76 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

Democratic administration would suit tliem, be- 
cause tliey have had no experience with the party. 
They have never seen the party in control of the 
government. If they would look back just as far 
as they can remember and notice the progress this 
country has made for the last twenty years they 
must say that the Republican administration was 
good, was a great deal better than good, taking into 
consideration the deplorable condition that the 
Democratic administration had left it in: Shoot- 
ing down loyal men in the South, tearing the Stars 
and Stripes, the flag of this country, into pieces and 
trampling it under their feet, while the riotous 
Democrats of the ^orth formed into howling mobs 
against the Federal Government, and by so doing 
gave tlie rebel cause more encouragement than if 
they were in the rebel ranks fighting for the rebel 
cause. These are incidents in the history of the 
Democratic party; with all these facts in view and 
facts that they know to be true, they have the cheek 
every four years to come to the front and claim that 
they are the party that should hold the reins of this 
government. It remains for the voters of the LTnii- 
ed States to answer at the comino* election. 



THAT LEXINGTON IMPUDENCE. 77 

I^ow, Mr. Editor, in answer to that false inscrip- 
tion displayed at Lexington. I liave been ill in bed 
for seven weeks, but am now able to be ont-door% 
and if I am alive on election day I will be one of 
the many Irishmen of Merna, Towanda Township, 
McLean Connty, Illinois, that will vote for Garfield 
and Arthur, for they are the nominees of the party 
that has always proved itself true to the people and 
the nation and the nation's credit. The time has 
not yet arrived when a change of administration 
would be best for the public good, and the voters of 
the United States will see to it at the coming elec- 
tion that the reins of this government will be hehl 
and guided by its friends and not by its enemies. 




SHOULD EDUCATION BE COMPULSORY? 

f^V i^V i^V 

Why a Liberal Allowance Should be Made for our Schoolst 
while Leaving Attendance Optional. 

1*7* ^* f^^ 

Debate at Smith Grove (Illinois) School-House, February 4, 1878, Partic- 
ipated in by Thomas J. Ford. 

(^W %^^ t^* 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen and Hon- 
orable Judges: The question before vou, ''Sliould 
Education Be Compulsory?'' is a question of much 
importance, both to the citizen and the public. To 
insist that every child in Illinois should attend 
school a certain number of years would require that 
much of our legislation and many of our customs 
should be changed. We can safely say that any in- 
terference with a man's private affairs is contrary 
to the spirit of our American institutions, and for 
this reason any attempt to introduce an argument 
from the practice in Euro^^e is not a good one, for 
the reason that man has been more completely gov- 

78 



SHOULD EDUCATION BE COMPULSORY? 79 

eriied in the Old World. AVe must look at the 
case as it will affect our o^\ai condition, and not as 
it affects others. It is illogical for me to say to my 
neighbor, have your child educated, and he must 
be, although you are in bed sick and that child is 
your only support. Only the gTeatest reasons will 
justify that interference with the rights of the in- 
dividual citizen. Every parent is naturally con- 
stituted the guardian of his children, and is most 
capable to tell what is for their benefit. Every fa- 
ther by nature seeks the welfare of his children, 
and any attempt by law to make him do it is apt to 
prove useless. But we are met with the argiimenr 
that the good of the state requires that each citizen 
be educated. Granted, but let the state furnish 
facilities for education, and there its duty stops. 
The last speaker told us that ignorance is the caUvSe 
of crime and that most of our jails and prisons are 
filled with ignorant and uneducated people. You 
cannot prove this to be true, for it is utterly explod- 
ed by facts. The inmates of our jails and prison;? 
are in the majority educated people. You cannot 
say that each one of the inmates of our jails and 
prisons has no education any more than you can say 



80 AVITH THE KANK AND FILE. 

that ignorance is the cause of crime, for most of tlie 
expert criminals that are in our jails and prisons are 
educated men. Herbert Spencer, one of the best 
Social Science philosophers living, has shown this 
to be true, and has shown that the educated crim- 
inal can stare you out of countenance every day iii 
the week. You can no more prove that ignorance 
is a cause of crime than the neglect to use soap is a 
cause. The tiiith is, deviltry is born in a man, and 
you cannot educate it out of him one time in a hun- 
dred. You must look for a better argument, for 
that is utterly exploded by facts. Should educii- 
tion be compulsor)^, then, for the benefit of the 
child ? The Avelf are of posterity is a great question 
and worthy of your consideration. But we can 
safely assume that in this day and country everyone^ 
that wants an education can get it; and when you 
come right down to the facts in the case, the man 
who is educated is the man who thirsts for knowl- 
edge. All the cramming you can give will not 
make an educated man. ^Alany a man who has 
never been inside of a school-house is better educat- 
ed than some who have gone through college and 
hold diplomas. But the minute you say that the 



SHOULD EDUCATION BE COMPULSORY? 81 

yoiitli of tlie land must be educated, you involve 
yourself in absurdity. You cannot logically say 
tliat he must go to school till he is fourteen years 
old, as the law is in Germany, for it is clear to all 
that some will learn much more in that time than 
others. Some may be sick so as not to be able to 
keep up with their grades. If education should be 
compulsory then it is manifest that you should have 
a certain amount. For instance, the pupil should 
imderstand the common school learning, to make a 
good citizen under the compulsory law; he should 
understand the constitution of his state and the 
United States and the laws and spirit of American 
institutions. He should understand the laws of 
health, so as to preserve his own life and the life of 
others. Church people might insist that the wel- 
fare of the state and the individual demands that he 
understand how to preach. Here you have the 
student that is through our public schools, a lawyer, 
a doctor and a preacher, or three learned men rolled 
into one. It would take a pretty good lifetime to 
make a complete citizen under the law of compul- 
sory education. You may say that what I propose 
is an absurdity, but it is an absurdity into which 



82 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

your own argument leads you; it is the natural con- 
clusion of your own logic. The fact is, that the 
same reasoning that will justify compulsoiy educa- 
tion will justify a state church and compulsory at- 
tendance at such church. In both cases the good 
of the citizen and the safety of the state are the ob- 
jects sought, and both are illogical, un-American 
and tyrannical in their tendencies. If you have 
compulsory education who shall say how far it shall 
go — you have no more right to say than I have. 
Now, I want you to understand that I am not op- 
posed to general, universal education. I am in fa- 
vor of it, but to compel it is improper and unjust. 
By adopting compulsory education you take away 
the support of the widow, even if she be in bed sick 
with her bony fingers unable to support herself. 
Adopt compulsoiy education then and you be- 
gin to rob the citizen of his liberty. If you can 
say how much or whether he shall be educated, then 
you can say what she shall eat and wear. All ar- 
guments for compulsory education are dangerous to 
individual liberty, and for these reasons, while I 
am in favor of liberal and general education, I am 
utterly opposed to its being compulsory. 



WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN. 

^^ f^ ^* 

The Memory of the Father of His Country More Lasting 
than that of the Defender of Liberty. 

?^ 5^ t^ 

Discussion at Phenix School House, Towanda Township, McLean Coun- 
ty, 111., February 12, 1878. Affirmative taken by Thomas J. Ford, 
in whose faror the judges awarded their decision. 

J^ e^ J^ 

Ladies and Gentlemen and Honorable Judges: 
The question before us is, ''Resolved, That George 
Washington has done more for the American peo- 
ple than Abraham Lincoln.'^ My feelings for 
Abraham Lincoln will not allow me to say anything 
that would have a tendency to deprive him of tlie 
merits which he deserves. 

Abraham Lincoln was a good, honest old gen-" 
tleman, but my heart is with George Washington, 
the Father of this country, who was "first in war, 
first in peace and first in the hearts of his country- 
men. '^ Whatever I shall say on the subject before 

83 



84 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

you, I will say, not from a desire to win the de- 
cision of the judges, but from a sincere belief of the 
truth of the resolution, that Washington has done 
more for the American people than Lincoln. What^ 
ever I say will be without malice toward Abraham 
Lincoln, but with gTcater reverence for George 
Washington, for, in common with all citizens of the 
State of Illinois, I admire the merits of the grandest 
man Illinois ever furnished; and right here, honor- 
able judges, I want to ask you to cast aside that 
prejudice that must be in the heaii: of every resi- 
dent of this state. Let your mind be as equal be- 
tween the two men as a delicate balance, for unless 
it is you cannot reach a valid conclusion and what- 
ever either side would say would be useless. 

Another thing. You must forget the tragic 
end of Lincoln's life to arrive at a correct decision, 
for that martyrized him and gave him a martyr's 
fame and a martyr's crown, and threw a hallowed 
glamour over every previous act of his life. Yon 
must separate what he actually accomplished from 
the stage effects surrounding what he did. The 
play that is read to you in the parlor leaves no such 
impression on your mind as the same play present- 



WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN. 85 

ed to you on tlie stage with fine scenery and blue 
and red lights; the one is a kind of a dream, the 
other a living aetuality. So with the two great 
men whose works we are discussing to-night, the 
history of one is a misty recollection of the past, 
the history of the other some of us helped to make. 
I have for one, and have reason to sigh for the 
blood that I lost and the pain that I endure at times. 
One of the men we have never seen ; the other some 
of us have clasped by the hand. Washington lived 
nearly a thousand miles from here, and nearly a 
hundred years ago. Lincoln lived within a few 
hours' journey, and but a few years ago. Wash- 
ington lived in a time when the steam printing 
press, the daily papers and the telegraph were not 
dreamed of, while the great facilities for gathering 
news have made us familiar with every incident in 
Lincoln's life. We must divest ourselves of the 
unconscious prejudice we possess from our more in- 
timate acquaintance with Lincoln. Future gener- 
ations must and will form the correct estimate be- 
tween the two men ; future generations will see the 
difference between the man who hewed out 
a new road in the forest and the one who 



86 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

merely kept it in repair. Be assured, la- 
dies and gentlemen, tliey will give palm to 
the pioneer. In the one case von see a man at 
the head of an army, sparse in nnmbers, ill armed, 
poorly fed and clothed and confronted by the army 
of the strongest nation on earth. George Wash- 
ington was at the head of an army whose soldiers 
too often sighed after the flesh-pots of their homes 
and firesides that they had left, an army whose gen- 
erals were tempted by British gold and English 
honors, an army only kept together by the faith, 
enthusiasm and moral courage of its leader. And 
on the other hand you see Abraham Lincoln at the 
head of a nation, the commander-in-chief, by ^drtue 
of his office, of an army far outnumbering that of 
the Rebellion, with a land full of plenty and 
wealth, with a people enthusiastic in the defense 
of their homes and cherished institutions. Wash- 
ington had supplies grudgingly voted him by the 
factious Continental Congress, while Lincoln had 
a treasury filled with funds supplied to overflowing 
by a willing people and a united Congress. 

Washington lived in a land of poverty; Lincoln 
lived in a land of wealth. AYashinffton was beset 



WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN. 87 

by obstacles, danger, poverty and the uncertainty 
attending all new ventures, while Lincoln, though 
confronted by dangers, merely kept the ship of 
state running in the same channel. Washington 
was the Columbus who discovered the new nation, 
who built, manned and navigated a new ship of 
state over an unknown sea, while Lincoln was mere- 
ly the captain of the onward steamer, which is as 
certain of reaching its post as we are of going to 
Bloomington when we start in times when the 
roads are better than they are now. 

Washington was the creator, Lincoln merely 
the engineer who kept the machine running. If 
Lincoln deserves the laurel wreath, Washington de- 
serves the crown of honor. 



AS TO PENSIONS. 

%^^ %^^ t^* 

Veterans of the Late War Should be Rewarded, but the Pen- 
sion List Should not be Published. 

^5 (^ ^v 

A Letter Addressed to the Editor of the Evening Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 
by Thomas J. Ford, December 13, 1897. 

\^ t^ t^ 

Editor AVisconsin: The statement in your ar- 
ticle on publishing the pension list that "the influ- 
ence of the Loyal Legion and of many members of 
the Grand Army of the Eei>ublic is said to be back 
of the measure," may or may not be true. But it 
is true that there seems to be considerable agitation 
in the minds of many as to the propriety of grant- 
ing pensions to those who periled their lives and 
lost their health and limb and received wounds that 
shadow the light and intellect, that otherwise mighr 
have shone forth in its splendor and glory. The 
loss of a man's health, whether it be caused by 
Avounds or other disabilities, is a very sad affair to 



AS TO PENSIONS. b\) 

tlie good soldier, wlio bears his sufferings in quiet; 
and, like everything else, the older the soldiers get 
the more reason they have to complain, and the 
less sympathy there is for them. The fact is, Mr. 
Editor, every soldier that went through active field 
service ought to have a pension. There is not one 
man in a thousand in that class of soldiery but is 
physically disabled in some way or other. 

Think of it — an army wading rivers up to their 
breast in water at sundown in the months of De- 
cember and January, and lying down in their wet 
clothes on the bare ground, with an allowance of 
one-quarter rations, already eaten up the day be- 
fore ! Think of the Battle of Chickamauga, when, 
hemmed in in the Yalley of Chattanooga, for two 
months and four days with railroad and river com- 
munications cut off by rebel forces, men forced by 
hunger ate horses and mules that had actually died 
for the w^ant of food. Think of the many good 
men and soldiers that lost their health in rebel pris- 
ons. And then ask yourself if it is right to post 
them up in printed form for the public gaze and 
the calumny of men who would rather sympathize 
with a rebel than to give a Union soldier a pension. 



90 WITH THE RANK AND FILE. 

Look at the generous pension bill passed some few 
years ago under a Democratic administration — a 
sweeping pension bill giving every soldier that 
served in the Mexican war a pension of twelve dol- 
lars a month — no proof required only proof of ser- 
vice; no examining board — just send in your dis- 
charge with proof that you are the man, and you 
got your pension without further trouble. But to 
please the calamity-howlers and the rebel cause 
sympathizers you must post your good men and true 
that saved your country for you. They must be 
posted up for public inspection. You say the 
pensions are paid by taxation. I pay a few dollars 
taxes. I never saw anything in my receipt for 
pension taxes. Your Washington correspondent 
says a pension is a badge of honor. It ain't much 
honor for a soldier to get a pension and have his 
name published to be imjustly criticised by men 
who have no knowledge of the fact of his being 
worthy to receive a pension or not. With my ex- 
perience in getting a pension I don't see how there 
could be one single impostor on the pension rolls; 
and if there is it is the duty of the govermnent to 
hunt them up and prosecute them for falsifying, 



AS TO PENSIONS. 91 

forgery and perjury, as any citizen slionld be prose- 
cuted for such a cnnie, and not be liaiTassing and 
annoying your good old boys who wore the blue to 
save this country and protect our country's flag for 
you. 

I heard Paul Vandervoort, ex-Commander-in- 
Chief of the G. A. R., say that the pension pay roll 
was the purest pay roll in the United States to-day, 
and I believe him, and I also believe that they got 
the least pay for the work done of any men that 
were ever or are now in the United States employ- 
ment. And now they must be posted up because 
they get a few dollars pension. 

Let Congress hunt up the deficiency in other 
branches of government business and employes and 
not be tantalizing the old warriors with publishing 
documents. Be more liberal with the pensions and 
if you want to economize cut off 1 per cent, of the 
big salaries of all our high officials, and if you do 
that you will come more in line with justice and 
honor than by publishing the pension list. Yours, 

Thomas J. Ford. 



DEPARTURE OF THOMAS J, FORD. 

((?• C^* C(?* 

The "Well-Known Farmer and Politician will Make Milwau- 
kee His Home. 

From the Bloomington Bulletin, December 21st, 1S91. 

{(^ f^f C^* 

Mr. T. J. Ford, of Menia, lias gone to Milwau- 
kee to reside. This will be unwelcome news to liis 
myriads of friends in McLean County, who ad- 
mired him for his honorable principles and friendly 
bearing. ls\.x. Ford was bom in Boston, Mass. 
When he was aged 12 he emigrated with his father 
to Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. AVhen a very 
young man he enlisted in the army, and did such 
valiant service in the Union ranks that he was made 
sergeant. He carries to this day a ball in his left 
breast, which tells of his heroism more eloquently 
than sheepskin can portray. In IS 66 he came to 
McLean County and located near Merna, where he 

92 



DEPARTURE OF THOMAS J. FORD. 93 

owned a large tract of as fine a land as is in fertile 
Illinois. 

Mr. Ford lias one weakness, and it is a conspicu- 
ous fault, that of being a Eepublican. It is con- 
spicuous because of his enthusiasm. He has taken 
so much interest in politics that he has frequently 
been called upon to make speeches, and on the 
stump he made a rousing impression by the wit and 
tone that he injected into his discourse. Though 
wayward enough to be a Republican, he had warm 
friends among all classes, who respected him for the 
staunch manner in which he spoke his convictions. 
Mr. Ford's mfe died recently, and that broke the 
ties to his old home on the farm. Some days ago he 
had an immense sale, from which he realized large 
cash. This, it seems, was the preparatory step to 
his leaving. He bid farewell to the community in 
which he was such a prominent benefactor and left 
for the scenes of his boyhood. He has the best 
wishes of all who know him. 



COMMENDED BY HIS SUPERIORS. 

f^^ ^P% ^^m 

The Officers of the 24th Wisconsin Infantry Speak Highly of 
Thomas J. Ford. 

i^* %^^ i^^ 

Headquarters Company H, Twenty-fourtli Kegi- 
ment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; Second 
Division, Fourth Army Corps. 

Loudon, Tenn., Feb. I7tli, 1864. 
I certify on honor that Sergt. Thomas J. Ford, 
of Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is a 
member of my company, and I do recommend said 
Sergt. Thomas J. Ford for his good conduct, sobri- 
ety and soldiery bearings. He has been engaged 
with the regiment in four battles and several skir 
mishes, and has proved himself a faithful and brave 
soldier. His soldierly conduct, both in camp and 
in the field, cannot be surpassed. I do believe him 

94 



COMMENDED BY HIS SUPERIORS. 95 

as brave and true as any man ever enlisted in de- 
fense of liis country. 

George Coote, 
First Lieutenant, Commanding Company H, Twen- 
ty-fourth "Wisconsin Regiment. 

Wm. Kennedy, 
Captain Company G, Twenty-fourth Wisconsiii 
Regiment. 
I concur in the above. 

T. S. West, 
Colonel Twenty-fourth Wisconsin. 
John N. Kiefee, 

Orderly Sergeant Company H, Twenty- 
fourth Wisconsin Younteers. 




H 99 78 



^m 



